I remember liking this film. It takes place in a boarding house of the kind that no longer exist, where disparate characters were thrown together--making for a good story. But in this house everyone keeps themselves to themselves until the man upstairs precipitates a crisis. What will he do? Why has he locked himself in? Is he going to blow himself up? There are good cameos from characters like the landlady whose idea of a wash and brush up when woken in the night is to apply an even thicker coat of lipstick.
The tenants are helped to pull together by a feisty young woman (is she Australian?), but in the end Authority, in the person of a bossy army type, steps blunderingly in. Hmmmm - some kind of moral indicated.
***
This film is now available on VHS with The Angry Silence. Remarkably, it has no background music, and the action is in real time. When authority arrives in relays (social worker, police, more police, fire brigade, army) you expect one heroic figure to step forth and take over, but no - all they do is bicker among themselves, mainly about who should be giving orders. The social worker is sympathetic, but he wants to solve the situation on his own and resents being bossed by the police. Bernard Lee as the policeman is concerned for his injured sergeant and thinks this gives him the right to bluster and talk over everybody else.
The roomers, collected in the flat of the feisty young woman (Mrs Barnes), aren't much better. They all talk at once and at cross purposes, but eventually Mrs Barnes suggests that they should all go up in a body and stop the police using force. Mrs Barnes talks the Man into coming out and giving up his gun.
Yes, of course there's a moral and the collection of blundering authority figures is clearly meant to be farcical. The army type is ineffective rather than bossy, explaining in a public- school voice that what they really need is a riot tear-gas gun, but they're only for use abroad.
The tenants are helped to pull together by a feisty young woman (is she Australian?), but in the end Authority, in the person of a bossy army type, steps blunderingly in. Hmmmm - some kind of moral indicated.
***
This film is now available on VHS with The Angry Silence. Remarkably, it has no background music, and the action is in real time. When authority arrives in relays (social worker, police, more police, fire brigade, army) you expect one heroic figure to step forth and take over, but no - all they do is bicker among themselves, mainly about who should be giving orders. The social worker is sympathetic, but he wants to solve the situation on his own and resents being bossed by the police. Bernard Lee as the policeman is concerned for his injured sergeant and thinks this gives him the right to bluster and talk over everybody else.
The roomers, collected in the flat of the feisty young woman (Mrs Barnes), aren't much better. They all talk at once and at cross purposes, but eventually Mrs Barnes suggests that they should all go up in a body and stop the police using force. Mrs Barnes talks the Man into coming out and giving up his gun.
Yes, of course there's a moral and the collection of blundering authority figures is clearly meant to be farcical. The army type is ineffective rather than bossy, explaining in a public- school voice that what they really need is a riot tear-gas gun, but they're only for use abroad.